breakfast.

While we were eating, Fremont asked whose boy I was. Uncle Kit
replied that I was his boy, and "a first-class hunter and trapper,
and he shoots Injuns purty well, too." He then related the
incident of my killing the two Utes.

All arrangements having been made, Uncle Kit agreeing to meet Col.
Fremont at Bent's Fort in three weeks, they separated and we
pushed on for Taos. On arriving there Uncle Kit hired two Mexicans
to go back with Mr. Hughes to our beaver camp and get the furs,
and he gave instructions to take the furs to Santa Fe and dispose
of them. Uncle Kit then employed Juan and a Texan boy named John
West to assist us in fitting up for our California trip. So at the
end of three weeks we met Fremont at Bent's Fort as per agreement.

Fremont's company consisted of twenty-two men, and they were,
beyond doubt, the worst looking set of men I ever saw. Many of
them were scarcely able to walk from the effects of scurvy and
they were generally knocked out.

We had taken with us from Taos a pack-train loaded with
vegetables, such as potatoes, onions and the like, and after
Freemont's men had associated with those vegetables for a few
days, they came out fresh and smiling and were able to travel.

It was about the Middle of May, 1848, that we left Bent's Fort to
hunt a new route to the golden shores of California.

The first night out we camped at Fountain Qui Bouille--pronounced